Former Dublin football manager Mickey Whelan has called for the abolition of the handpass.

The St. Vincent's stalwart, who won an All-Ireland medal in 1963 and was part of Pat Gilroy's backroom team when the Dubs ended a 16-year wait for Sam Maguire glory in 2011, told the Irish Examiner: "I'm a bit disenchanted with the overuse of the handpass.

"When Dublin won it in 2011 we were a very good foot passing team. We did a lot of work on that and I think Dublin still do a lot of work on foot passing; they do a lot of handpassing as well, but they execute some very penetrative foot passes. But if you look at the sport overall, there's an overuse of the handpass."

Instead of trying to restrict it, Whelan believes the GAA should bite the bullet and ban the handpass completely.

"The trouble with [a restriction] is it becomes very difficult to operate, especially at underage, having to count the number of consecutive passes. I think they should just get rid of the handpass altogether.

"Most of the top players can accurately kick the ball so I don't think it would be too long before everyone would adapt to it and you'd have plenty of more foot passes in the game."

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